


The Leaving and the Left

by EvergreenLaurel



Series: Breaking the Laws of Attraction [3]
Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Dintis, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Quinnstrong, Rare Pairings, Rebound, Romance, Running Away Together, TIppy - Freeform, Taige, Tim/Happy, Toby/Paige
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-07 00:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11047650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvergreenLaurel/pseuds/EvergreenLaurel
Summary: Happy finally had a chance at real happiness. Funny how one night's mistake can ruin it all.Meanwhile, Toby finds that the stages of grief are hurried along with Tequila and good company.





	The Leaving and the Left

Happy stared down at her hands and swallowed hard, the bustle of the resort pool faded into the background as she sat stiffly on the end of a lounge chair. How did she get there? What had happened the past 24 hours? Happy knew that she could be impulsive sometimes but this, _this_ was a whole new level of crazy. How many bridges had she burned in this wild fit of passion? A painful inward groan made her close her eyes in misery. Probably all of them.

“Hey, Happy, I found some more towels,” Tim’s voice startled Happy out of her reverie. She looked up to see the shirtless Navy Seal settle next to her on the chair. Upon seeing her expression, his eyebrows wrinkled in concern. “You look a little out of it. What’s up, Happy?” His hand moved to rub her back.

Happy tensed at the touch. “Tim, what have we just done?”

“I believe the accepted term is ‘running away together’,” He offered her a half-hearted smile.

“Seriously, though. How did this happen?” Happy didn’t like how desperate her voice sounded or the nausea that started to churn in her stomach as the impact of their actions began to hit her.

Tim sighed and leaned back on the lounge chair, looking at the bright blue sky above them, “You were mad at Toby, I was frustrated with Paige. You offered to help me fix the firing pin on my side arm and,” He shrugged and raised his eyebrows playfully. “It was fun.”

Happy nodded, remembering that night well. Fixing his firing pin led to reassembling and assembling his rifle and working on slew of other random projects in her work area. Tim was so interested and kind and... stable. He listened attentively and, shockingly, understood most of what she said. It was 2 am before they slowed down, both of them wanting to keep their minds off their troubles as long as possible. After a couple of beers (not really enough to impair the experienced drinkers but enough for them to relax a little) and a long conversation about what it felt like to have the freedom to travel everywhere, one heated moment had led to a long kiss. Happy couldn’t say who started the kiss, just that it felt right and wrong at the same time and, oh, so good. Happy’s old run-away impulse was out in full force because of an argument she had with Toby that morning, so when Tim suggested that they just get up and go somewhere, anywhere, and leave their pain behind, she grabbed the keys to her truck and practically ran out the door with him. If she had stopped and thought about it, Happy knew she would have realized that pain cares nothing about distance.

After a long time of Happy not saying anything, Tim finally spoke up again, “Happy, I get it.” For a moment Tim stared off into space and Happy could practically read ‘Paige’ plastered across his thoughtful expression. “It sure looks like we’ve irreversibly screwed up both our lives.”

Happy looked over at Tim with a deadpan expression. “Sounds about right.”

Tim leaned forward and pressed his fingertips together, “So here’s the way I’m thinking about this: what’s done is done. We can’t go back.” He spread his hands. “The only way is forward. And I think we have the best chance if we go it together.”

Happy scoffed in attempt to cover up the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes. She knew that Tim was right. They couldn’t turn back time, and someone to watch her back while she tried to figure out where to go next wouldn’t be the worst thing. And it wasn’t like she disliked Tim. He just wasn’t Toby. She had broken the heart of her best friend and she was pretty sure that he would never want to speak to her again. And no matter how much she told herself that she could take care of herself, she was accustomed to the security and family that Scorpion provided. That _Toby_ provided. And now she had ruined it and possibly the only chance she ever had at real happiness. Happy felt her breathing start to speed up and suddenly her world was closing in around her. As if from a distance, she felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulder as Tim started slowly rubbing her back again.

“Happy. Happy, you need to slow your breathing. I think you’re having a panic attack,” Tim’s voice was far away but served to steady Happy. His other hand moved to pull her chin around until she was looking into his face. “Breathe with me, Happy. In.… Out…. In…. Out...” Happy copied his breathing until her own was under control and she started to feel more present. “That’s better.” Tim quirked a smile her way and let go of her shoulders but kept his hand on her chin. “Happy, I don’t take what we’re doing here lightly. I know you feel like you’ve just lost everything but I knew what I was doing when we left the garage and so did you. We chose this. We’re going to get through it, okay?”

Happy leaned back and looked at Tim: the firm set of his jaw, the kindness in his eyes, the pure strength emanating off of him that she couldn’t ignore. Again, he was right. She chose this. And as much as it hurt, she knew she had her reasons. There was some part of her that wanted to be with Tim. She could only hope that part of her grew in the coming months. Leaning forward, Happy scooted toward Tim and reclined onto his chest, feeling strange—still heartbroken **—** but oddly hopeful at the same time.

“Okay.”

* * *

 

 

“Who does he think he is?” Toby was pacing, working up an anger that rivaled Happy’s on one of her bad days. “We didn’t ask for him to waltz into our lives and then waltz off with all our happiness! You know what? Forget them both!”

Paige blinked at Toby. “Six minutes ago you were leaving your twelfth message on Happy’s cell phone begging her to come back. What’s changed?”

“What’s changed is that I’ve passed on to stage three of grieving!” Toby’s rage didn’t abate as he all but screamed his explanation at Paige. “Stage one was denial, when I kept checking the parking lot for her car and repeating over and over that she must have gotten a flat on the way to work.” He started to tick the stages off on his fingers. “Stage two was bargaining, thus the multiple messages left on her phone. And now we’re on to stage three and I’m screaming mad!” Toby punctuated his sentence with a swift hand movement that knocked three of Happy’s wrenches off her workbench with a loud crash.

Paige barely reacted to Toby’s tirade. Instead she let out a long sigh from her perch on her office chair and muttered, “Oh, okay.”

Paige’s lack of response caused Toby to pause his rampage long enough to squint across the room at her. “Come to think of it, what happened to your grief stages? Your lover boy runs off with a smokin’ hot mechanic and all you can manage is slight disappointment? What gives?”

“I dunno,” Paige shrugged her shoulders and fiddled with the edge of a notebook on her desk. “I guess it was pretty much over long before he ran off with Happy. He never believed me when I said that I was over Walter and lately we’ve just been getting more and more distant.” Another long sigh escaped Paige’s lips. “I guess I always knew deep down that he wasn’t going to be the one.”

Paige’s sad speech seemed to have drained some of the fury from Toby because he stopped pacing and moved to sit on her desk. Looking sadly down at Paige he said, “Happy was my one.”

After a moment of thought Paige finally said, “I don’t know if I believe in ‘the one’.”

“Oh?” Toby raised his eyebrows. “I had you pegged as more romantic than that.”

Paige leaned back in her office chair and scrunched her eyebrows together. “I think I did at one point. But life has a way of beating that sort of thing out of you.”

“You’re telling me,” Toby ran his hand through his curls. “I’d rather walk into the ring a hundred times then feel like this for another second.”

Paige nodded and scoffed. “Love sucks.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does,” Toby looked away as tears sprung to his eyes.

“Toby,” Paige said gently, placing her hand over his on the desk.

“I just-” He swallowed hard, trying to speak without choking up. “How could Happy do this?”

Paige paused to look thoughtful for a minute, “People do a lot of stupid things for a lot of stupid reasons. But if I know Happy at all, this is tearing her up almost as much as it tearing you up.”

Toby exhaled sharply through his nose, “Doubt it. Do you think Tim’s torn up about leaving you?”

“Okay, that’s it.” Paige stood up suddenly. “We need a drink. Where does Cabe keep his Scotch?”

“Bottom desk drawer I think,” Toby started at Paige’s sudden movement but quickly settled back into his sad posture. “Tequila’s in my desk. Left side.”

Paige returned momentarily with both bottles. “This feels like a ‘mix your alcohol’ sort of night. Everyone else is out for the night and Ralph is with Sly so we have the place to ourselves. Which bottle do you want first?” She held out both bottles to Toby expectantly.

Toby stared at Paige a moment, wide-eyed, wondering what suddenly got into his normally staunchly responsible friend. Then his highly-trained eyes noticed a slight tremor in her lower lip and decided he’d have to revisit his theory of ‘slight disappointment’ in Tim’s disappearance.

“Tequila. Cabe’s Scotch tastes like Pomade had a baby with old cigars.”

–

“Ya’know, I wonder what they doing right nowwww….” Toby trailed off as he looked carelessly down the neck of his half-empty bottle of Tequila. They were now on hour three of drinking and had consumed enough alcohol to make speaking correctly just a little too difficult.

Paige snorted in response, “Probably something really fun… like… polishing his biceps.” She giggled at her own joke.

“Oh, yeah?” Toby tried to hold his head up proudly but it ended up looking more like he was a chicken learning to hold his head up for the first time. “Let me tell youu...” He pointed an unsteady finger at Paige. “Armstrong’s not the only one with strong arms.”

Paige suddenly got a mischievous look on her face. “Prove it.” At this she started crawling from her end of the couch to his (they had moved off the desk within the first hour). Grabbing onto his left shoulder for balance, she knelt in front of him and squeezed his right bicep. “Not too bad.” Leaning close to Toby’s face for effect, she continued, “But you, mister, are no Navy Seal.”

For a moment everything went still. Toby could feel Paige’s breath on his cheeks, smell the stench of Cabe’s Scotch, see every line and pore on Paige’s face as she smiled teasingly at him. Without even realizing that he was doing it, he found himself leaning forward and gently pressing his lips on Paige’s. It only took half a second for his brain to catch up with what he was doing, though, and he pulled away suddenly, sobered and stammering. “I’m s-sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, it was entirely-”

Toby was cut off by Paige’s lips again on his own in a kiss that lasted a little longer but no more than two short seconds before Toby broke it again, holding Paige’s shoulders to stop either of them from attempting a repeat performance. Paige looked dazed and a little hurt and Toby felt his thumbs rubbing slow circles where they rested on her shoulders as if to lessen the blow.

“Paige, you’re beautiful and kind and I would be lying if I said that forgetting everything with you for just a few minutes doesn’t sound appealing.” Toby shook his head, trying to chase the Tequila away long enough to get out what he needed to say. “But, Paige, I don’t have many good things left in my life. And, you, you’re one of them. I don’t want to ruin it.”

The information seemed to take a minute to fully register in Paige’s impaired brain but eventually she nodded in agreement and pulled back, sitting just far enough away from Toby that leaning over to embrace him would be a stretch. “You’re right,” she nodded again, playing with the hem of her shirt. “I don’t know what we were thinking.”

Toby sighed, “We weren’t thinking. We were feeling. We were feeling rejected and sad and saw a chance to escape those feelings for a short while. It’s a perfectly normal response to--”

“That’s okay,” Paige interrupted, holding up her hand. “I don’t need the medical spiel. Let’s just call it misguided rebounding and chalk it up to the booze, yeah?”

Toby gave her a half-hearted smile, “Deal.”

Paige leaned her head back on the couch, seemingly satisfied with putting the whole thing behind her. “So, really, the real question is: what stage of grief are you in now?” She flicked her eyes over to look at Toby without moving from her position.

“Well, they didn’t exactly cover the massive-amounts-of-booze and almost-made-out-with-your-best-friend stage at Harvard.” Toby gave a short, wry laugh. “But I’m going to take an educated guess and say that, just for tonight, I’m rapidly moving towards Acceptance.”

“That’s fast,” Paige hiccuped and started to burrow herself deeper into the couch, eyes blinking heavily.

“I always thought Tequila an excellent catalyst for this sort of thing,” Toby picked up his bottle from the coffee table, gave it a long look, then put it back down. “But I’m fully expecting regression tomorrow so enjoy it while you can.”

Paige nodded, starting to drift a little. “Hey, Toby?”

“Uh-huh?” Toby was starting to feel a little drowsy himself.

“Do you really think of me as your best friend? Ya’know, when you said you almost made out with your best friend?”

Toby looked over a Paige who was starting to seriously cuddle up with one of the couch cushions. “Well, I’ve had a recent vacancy and, with this ill-begotten drunken night, you seem like pretty good best friend material, Ms. Dineen.”

“Mmm...” Paige smiled a little as she closed her eyes. “You too, Toby.”

Toby’s brain knew that this was just a temporary lull in their pain brought on by alcohol and distracting company but that knowledge couldn’t keep him from settling into the reprieve and closing his eyes as well. Things were probably going to get worse before they got better, but, peeking through one eyelid at Paige’s sleeping figure on the other end of the couch, Toby thought that maybe he wouldn’t have to go through it alone.

**Author's Note:**

> So for this one to work, Happy had to be a bit out of character, I'm sorry. It's really difficult to pair Quintis with anyone but each other without doing something extreme. The next in this series will be happier! That being said, is Tippy or Quinnstrong a better Tim/Happy ship name?
> 
> Also, I do want to note that I'd love rarepair suggestions/ideas/requests if you have any! Keep in mind, though, that I don't do slash or smut. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
